How can the concept of uncomfortable feelings
February 12, 2012
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15h25 UTC; SUNDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2012: By now, the big news you may or may not have heard about was the shock death yesterday of singer Whitney Houston (48) from circumstances as may suggest what the British call "death by misadventure" (what with her having a past history of drug problems as essentially derailed her career), with the tributes no doubt being rather overwhelming to a point where some media critics will suggest where such is "junk food news," lacking any serious information value as opposed to The Real Issues.
And likely to make the whole even worse is the potential for prolefeed exploitation thereof by such specimens of Zealotry and True Belief insisting on the "moral superiority" of Amerikanischer Realkultur which sees as its acme and perfection what Cal Thomas once called the "nutritious patriot love" of die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur, das Realkultur von der Amerikanischer Volk, replete, methinks with appeals having rather tasteless parallels to the Nazis' "holy blood and soil" meme as make Branson out to be the Shining City on a Hill, Jerusalem of Gold, of an idealised "people's culture" serving conservative propaganda ideals in a simple, easily-understood manner whose message can expect to be easily grasped by the average 5th-grader.
But then again, this Shining City on a Hill meme can easily cross the line into the psychopathic, as witness where a Zen Buddhist acolyte set Kyoto's highly-revered Golden Temple Pavilion on fire in the summer of 1950 after getting ideas in his mind that he was weak, puny and vulnerable when measured against its Luscious Glory in gold leaf. (Yukio Mishima's novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, which was inspired by the tragedy and its ensuing national outrage, elaborates on the underlying circumstances somewhat.)
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From the "What Were They Saying??!!!" file: Think Progress quoth Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia from recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee (emphasis supplied):
Think Progress replied thus:
The bill of rights of the former evil empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was much better than ours. I mean it literally. It was much better. We guarantee freedom of speech and of the press, big deal! The guaranteed freedom of speech, of the press of street demonstrations and anyone who is caught trying to suppress criticism of the government will be called to account.(You can see the actual comment from Justice Scalia's lips in YouTube.)
Think Progress replied thus:
Scalia’s casual disregard for our Constitution proves that he is manifestly unfit to interpret it. If Scalia would rather live under the Soviet constitution, than he should move to Russia and see how he likes trying to get a job as a judge there. Clearly, ThinkProgress has no choice but to call for this communist infiltrator to immediately resign from the federal bench."So where's the outrage here, people?"
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Moving from the ridiculous to the obnoxious, DailyNK.com, an online gazetta covering North Korean news and information in a more impartial manner, makes note of just how far the North Koreans can go in its Luscious Glory of idolatrous excess--in this instance, risking environmental harm:
To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the birth of the late Kim Jong Il on February 16th, North Korea has had the phrase "Unsurpassed Patriot General Kim Jong Il" carved in a rock at Mt. Seokda in South Pyongan Province. Chosun Central News Agency (KCNA) claims that the total length of the carving is 120m.Something "Tea Party" and Ayn Randite types need to start thinking about before they see Mt. Rushmore as not good enough a Patriotic Holy of Holies. Or, for that matter, Stone Mountain.
This is not new. The carvings first started appearing in the mid 1970s when Kim Jong Il was appointed successor to Kim Il Sung. In essence it involves picking the most scenic mountains like Keumkang and Myohyang and carving inane things in them like “The Nation’s Celebrated Mountain. Kim Jong Il”
According to defectors, it got worse after Kim Il Sung’s death, when Kim Jong Il ordered the authorities to carve phrases into various scenic locations because “We need to convey to our descendants how great a person we had as Suryeong.”
Mansudae Art Institution did the work, and one after another the noted mountains of North Korea were inscribed upon. “Revolutionary Mt. Baekdu. Kim Jong Il” was carved into the most famous mountain of all. The highlight, if it can be called that, is "Jong Il Peak" carved behind the log cabin where Kim Jong Il was supposedly born and raised.
The North Korean media says that Jong Il Peak is 216m high, which conveniently matches the date of his birthday. They also suggest that on his birthday “Flowers blossom only around Jong Il peak, as if safeguarding it.”
It is estimated that similar acts of vandalism have now occurred in more than a hundred places.
Other items used in the Kim family idolization project will be easily removed when North Korea throws out the Kims; however, letters carved into natural rocks a meter deep are not so easy to erase. Whether digging the letters out or filling them in, both leave a permanent scar.
This graffiti, for that is all it is, should no longer be tolerated. If it is, North Korea will continue to obliterate otherwise delightful mountains and rock faces in the name of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and eventually Kim Jong Un, leaving no rock left unscathed.
The Kim family might think that their reign will go on forever, but one, Kim Jong Nam, and a great many people besides disagree. The authorities should not be allowed to go on doing this uncriticized. It is astonishing that none of the environmental groups in South Korea or the wider world deem it necessary to express concern at this out-and-out environmental vandalism.
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The "Tea Party" (pseudo)movement, for its part, must be envious of what the North Koreans, their spiritual cousins in patriotic idolatry reeking of the dangerously fanatical, have called for this coming Thursday to mark the birth anniversary of the late "Great Leader" Kim Jong Il. Again, DailyNK:
The North Korean authorities are busy creating the right atmosphere for the first February 16th since Kim Jong Il passed away in December, with the media conveying news of key "loyalty gatherings" held around the nation while also reporting news of upcoming events.(And speaking of being fanatically willing to act as human shields in defence of Our Dearest Holy Land, the which is prohibited under the Rules and Conventions of War, unverified reports trickling out of Syria hath it that the sadism of Bashar al-Assad's regime, with aid and comfort from the "Islamic Republic of Iran," is extending to the use of human shields against tank barrages against innocent civilians demanding liberty and human rights--which official Syrian prolefeed insists are "terrorists" and little else--in Homs and, more recently, Aleppo.)
Of course, every year North Korea demands that the people take part in gatherings to sing songs of loyalty, various contests, documentary film and literature study sessions and memorial lectures. This year, it is "Kim Jong Il Remebrance Meetings" which have been added to the already burgeoning schedule.
A source from Shinuiju in North Pyongan Province told the Daily NK today, “On top of all the previous events, this year they are holding Kim Jong Il remembrance meetings at all levels of enterprise and organization.”
“They have always harassed us every year at the time of the birthday, so now people are complaining openly that the authorities have just added more to the annoyance of attending,” she went on.
The new "Kim Jong Il remembrance meeting" is reportedly a gathering featuring people who have met Kim testifying to his greatness, boundless love etc. The authorities are making people participate, the source said.
Meanwhile, news of one of the most prominent loyalty gatherings emerged on the 6th in Rodong Shinmun. According to the piece, young people from all over the nation are gathering at Mt. Baekdu to swear allegiance to Kim Jong Un saying, “Respected comrade Kim Jong Un is the banner of the victory and glory of military-first Chosun and the core of our solidarity, and we will become shields, defending him with our very lives.”
To be chosen as a member of the group of youngsters sent to Mt. Baekdu for the event is considered to be very lucky. Those chosen are exemplary in their school study of the Kim family and fiercely loyal to the regime.
The group travel together by train from Hyesan in Yangkang Province to the village of Rimyungsu and from there to Samjiyon, where North Korean mythology has it that Kim Jong Il was born in 1942.
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Talk about doublethink: With RepubliKKKans in the House of Representatives (all to face reelection in Indecision 2012, know) having been elected on categorical pledges to create jobs, and yet no viable action having been proposed therefrom towards actual jobs creation (instead creating all manner of "Red Herring" patsies and distractions under the illusion thereof), I, for one, have to wonder if the real desire among the GOP Congressional deputation is one of acting the Trojan horse, undermining the socioeconomic fabric from within so as to (paraphrasing George Orwell here) "tear apart existing models and recast them in new shapes of its own chossing."
Which, more than likely, are probably such from the Afrikaner Nationalist playbook as prepared the hyper-Masonic Afrikaner Broederbond, in form and fashion of the Purified National Party, for attaining political power translating into the apartheid regime (officially packaged as "Christian Nationalism," never mind its Fascist/Nazi undertones) in the 1948 elections down South Africa way, in particular such implying that appeals to idealised National Unity and Solidarity, rather than "wasteful and ineffective" State charity "risking the perpetuation of dependency," would best help empower the poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-manipulate into Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life; the end result expected to be one of replacing "pious sentiment" through State welfare with "jingling coin" through profit expected to be constantly reinvested for the Greater Glory of the Afrikaner from everlasting to everlasting.
Said reinvestment preferably through the form of appeals on behalf of "spontaneous" Reddingsdaad campaigns financing Reddingsdaadfonds whence self-liquidating loans (in theory) would be made towards viable examples of Volkskapitalisme "born out of the Volk to serve the Volk," the whole expected to be self-perpetuating through the Reddingsdaadfond device--howbeit without the risk of such potentially being misused to the point of impoper diversion towards personal use by such entrusted to act in a trustee role for and on behalf of the Volk, in whose (theoretical) name and behalf such funds are created and managed (the implication being that the Great Unwashed are somehow "incapable of making wise decisions on their own as will not lead to error;" hence, the need for their management by "wiser and better persons" who may themselves actually be alcoholics, drug addicts, sex fiends, gamblers and worse specimens of "social degenerates" not technically qualified to take the Trustees' Oath).
Which, more than likely, are probably such from the Afrikaner Nationalist playbook as prepared the hyper-Masonic Afrikaner Broederbond, in form and fashion of the Purified National Party, for attaining political power translating into the apartheid regime (officially packaged as "Christian Nationalism," never mind its Fascist/Nazi undertones) in the 1948 elections down South Africa way, in particular such implying that appeals to idealised National Unity and Solidarity, rather than "wasteful and ineffective" State charity "risking the perpetuation of dependency," would best help empower the poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-manipulate into Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life; the end result expected to be one of replacing "pious sentiment" through State welfare with "jingling coin" through profit expected to be constantly reinvested for the Greater Glory of the Afrikaner from everlasting to everlasting.
Said reinvestment preferably through the form of appeals on behalf of "spontaneous" Reddingsdaad campaigns financing Reddingsdaadfonds whence self-liquidating loans (in theory) would be made towards viable examples of Volkskapitalisme "born out of the Volk to serve the Volk," the whole expected to be self-perpetuating through the Reddingsdaadfond device--howbeit without the risk of such potentially being misused to the point of impoper diversion towards personal use by such entrusted to act in a trustee role for and on behalf of the Volk, in whose (theoretical) name and behalf such funds are created and managed (the implication being that the Great Unwashed are somehow "incapable of making wise decisions on their own as will not lead to error;" hence, the need for their management by "wiser and better persons" who may themselves actually be alcoholics, drug addicts, sex fiends, gamblers and worse specimens of "social degenerates" not technically qualified to take the Trustees' Oath).
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A side of "Real America" Fox News is hesitant to cover without manufactured displays of hypocritical patriotic delusion to risk dilution of its message: Ongoing socioeconomic dislocation, coupled with the closing of an important local bridge for reconstruction, prompted calls for a "cash mob" to flood Emery's 5&10 Store in Knoxville, TN on Friday as a show of solidarity for a small business thus afflicted particularly hard. And flood Emery's with business they did, giving its manager feelings he described as "nothing less than heartwarming."
Let's hope there's more "cash mobs" out there in the interest of small, largely family-run, business in the weeks and months ahead. And let's hope they're done responsibly, with due regard for safety of shoppers as much as staff and employees of the targeted businesses. Especially when done in tandem with the concept of "Small Business Saturday" that American Express launched on the Thanksgiving long weekend vis-a-vis Christmas shopping ... and especially when reinforced with community action groups and civic-minded churches distributing bags of 50-cent coins and/or $2 notes in furtherance of such actions, to demonstrate the importance of small-consumer purchasing power upon the economy.
REMEMBER THIS: Your comments on, and responsible sharing of, these posts are always welcome and appreciated. And if ever you need to contact me with questions, comments, whatever, please do so through this page; the which is necessary to preempt "spam" generated through the greater website.
N.B. Forget those costly "make money online" "seminars" and "home study courses," which could actually be scams: Discover how you yourself, with a few simple clicks, can actually make serious money with the likes of Amazon.com
, Amazon.ca
, Chitika (either as publisher and/or advertiser), LinkShare.com
, LinkShare UK
and/or AffiliateFuture.com off your very own website or weblog, "free-no-cost" whatsoever ... and if your business is already on Teh Innerwebs, find out how joining PayPal can make accepting payments online all the easier for you!
Let's hope there's more "cash mobs" out there in the interest of small, largely family-run, business in the weeks and months ahead. And let's hope they're done responsibly, with due regard for safety of shoppers as much as staff and employees of the targeted businesses. Especially when done in tandem with the concept of "Small Business Saturday" that American Express launched on the Thanksgiving long weekend vis-a-vis Christmas shopping ... and especially when reinforced with community action groups and civic-minded churches distributing bags of 50-cent coins and/or $2 notes in furtherance of such actions, to demonstrate the importance of small-consumer purchasing power upon the economy.
REMEMBER THIS: Your comments on, and responsible sharing of, these posts are always welcome and appreciated. And if ever you need to contact me with questions, comments, whatever, please do so through this page; the which is necessary to preempt "spam" generated through the greater website.
N.B. Forget those costly "make money online" "seminars" and "home study courses," which could actually be scams: Discover how you yourself, with a few simple clicks, can actually make serious money with the likes of Amazon.com
, Amazon.ca, Chitika (either as publisher and/or advertiser), LinkShare.comPosted by Iludium Phosdex.
Your Correspondent, dyslexic. Unemployable because of past psychosexual abuse. Yet opinionated nonetheless, which is carried out in this rather esoterically-inclined blog.
